FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, greets Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at the White House in Washington. Malaysias image as a striving, modern nation that upholds the rule of law has been undermined by an epic corruption scandal at state investment fund 1MDB. Najib, who set up the fund, is facing May 9, 2018 national elections that will test his legitimacy. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Photo: Evan Vucci, STF / Associated Press

Keeping up with the news can feel like a full-time job these days, and one of the consequences is that stories about government corruption have lost their sting. There are simply too many alarming things going on for any one piece of wrongdoing or petty theft to sink in.

The Malaysians are among the people, governments and companies that have poured money into or done favors for the Trump Organization since Trump has been elected. The American people could feel a little better about that if Trump had done as he promised and put his company in a blind trust. He has not.

It’s all very sordid, and the sheer accumulation of it all, along with the likelihood that few of these people will ultimately be truly held to account, takes a psychic toll on the American public. It debases us all. Pruitt and Kushner and Trump and Carson are teaching us what to expect.

Washington has always been a hot pot of corruption and malign influences. But the nature of that corruption has changed over time. Within living memory, it was relatively normal for politicians to receive briefcases full of illicit campaign contributions. That kind of self-dealing went into partial decline after Watergate. Politicians got cleaner, and special interests learned to funnel their influence-buying through legal channels.

What’s new about the Trump administration is that they’re doing what they do openly and without shame. It’s an escalation, something from the Gilded Age, another period where economic inequality was high, and men with few principles ruled the day.

The gross excesses of that time birthed a rumbling political movement that sought to take money out of politics and return power to the people. Part of that took the form of electing new politicians, but it also sought to change the structure of American politics, by enacting new constitutional amendments and changing the way people thought about their relationship to the state.

We’re not there yet, but there’s room to hope for something like this sort of reform. The unpalatable alternative is that we learn to accept the grime, and the United States becomes something cheaper than it was.